Cleantech Investor

First published in Cleantech Infocus: 2010 - Equity Deals of the Year, January 2011.  Copyright Cleantech Investor Ltd

Energy storage and grid connection remain major challenges for renewable energy uptake and these areas continued to attract the attention of investors during 2010.

In storage, in terms of batteries for electric vehicles, the venture fund raising by Boston-Power was perhaps the most notable event of the year: Boston-Power is supplying the batteries for the ZE Saab 9-3 EV, which was launched in 2010. And we’ve included the IPO of Talison Lithium on the list: technically a mining company rather than a storage company, but one which is benefiting from the growing demand for lithium batteries.

At the grid storage end of the scale, the IPO of an Australian zinc bromine battery systems manufacturer, RedFlow, was notable. Elsewhere, France’s McPhy Energy, which has developed technology for the storage of hydrogen in the form of magnesium hydride, raised venture funding. And investment in storage for applications in buildings included the TIAA-CREF/Good Energies partnership investment in Ice Energy.

Large scale grid projects such as the Desertec and the European Supergrid remain on the agenda in terms of news flow – but are not yet the subject of significant investment deals.

At the other end of the scale, however, technology for micro scale grid connection is attracting investment interest. Two companies with innovative solar inverter technologies were successful in raising funds during 2010: Solutronic AG achieved a listing on the Frankfurt stock exchange; and Enphase Energy of California raised venture funding.